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Chapter One

Cyprus

Present Day

“Cyprus, do you haveeverything we need for tonight?” Nick folded his newspaper and rested it on the bar. “I need to make sure that we have everything, I can't risk that rat bastard trying to fuck me over. I don't trust him, never have. The only reason I agreed to this thing was because of his father. But if he tries something, anything at all—”

Cutting in, I did my best to ease his worry. “It's all set, Nick. I have everything we need for tonight. Don't worry about it too much, it'll be fine.” Stacking the clean shot glasses, I finished setting up the station for tomorrow.

When I turned eighteen—or what we estimated my age to be, Nick gave me a job. I helped run the family bar, but that wasn't my main job. Cooking the books, that was my trade. I fixed the sheets and made it look legal to the outside world.

And I hated to admit it, but I was fucking good at it.

Smiling, Nick tapped the bar top, knocking on it with his knuckles. “God you remind me of Valentina, a spitting image. That woman rubbed off on you, it shows.” His eyes twinkled, casting a warm glow. “And you're sure you're alright with sitting in? I can have Birch do it if you don't want to.”

“No it's fine, I've sat in before, I can handle it. Besides, Birch will be up here if things go south, we can ring him if we need to.”

Smiling, he leaned across the bar and fisted my chin with a gentle bump. “Good girl, that's why I put you in charge of that stuff and not my boy. He has a hard time remembering his head from his asshole sometimes.” Chuckling, he pressed his palms against the edge of the wood and rocked back. “It would be my luck he'd shoot the guy point blank for a sneeze. Him and that feather trigger of his.”

“You really think I have that much of a short fuse?” Birch walked in from behind his father and gripped his shoulder.

“I don't think it, I know it.” Angling his head over his shoulder to look at his son, he playfully snapped. “You act like I haven't had the pleasure of seeing it before.”

Shaking him a little, Birch grinned. “Maybe I have you wrapped around my finger, old man. I hate that shit, sitting at a table and playing stupid fucking mind games with a couple of assholes.” Winking at me, he tossed a big smirk in my direction. “You know I love you, Cyprus, but setting up a buffet for a group of dicks and playing with numbers and the fine details is not my thing.”

“Yeah, acting like a giant muscle head is far better than looking smart.” Biting my lip, I veered my stare. “What will you do when I take that job too?”

Nick let out a deep throaty laugh, pointing his finger in my direction. “She sounds like your mother used to, Birch. Watch out for this one, she'll slit your throat in your sleep.” Reaching for his shot glass, he held it to his lips. “Just like I showed her how.”

He wasn't lying when he said that. Nick had spent a lot of time making sure I knew how to protect myself. The family business wasn't exactly built off honesty and law abiding rules.

It took me some time to figure out what he was involved in. I was too young to understand when I first met him, and I hadn't put two and two together when I saw those men at that table that night back when I was a kid.

Once I got older, it became more than obvious. Nicholi Rottera, the kind man who took me in, the loving father to his wife and child, he had a dark side. Ruthless and cutthroat, his business dealings were not for the faint of heart.

When he started to teach me how to use a gun and the proper way to handle a knife, I knew there was a reason. It wasn't exactly common practice for a person to share that with a kid. But he was right, I needed to learn how.

Nick had his hands in shit that others would run from. He considered himself a man who should be feared, but that didn't mean there weren't people out there waiting to take his life. The mafia was built off power and control, and Nick liked to have both.

As time went on, the loyalty between his family and myself grew. Nick had deemed me trustworthy enough to know the truth, and he decided to let me in on the family business.

At first, when he finally confirmed my suspicions, I wasn't sure what to think. A part of me was angry, like it was wrong to even be under the same roof as that family. It was dangerous, the risks were far too high that something could happen to any one of us.

But then I thought about the side of Nick I had seen, the caring father and loving husband who was there to protect his family.

That was the man I knew. Not the gangster gunslinger, who would hold cold steel to your temple and pull the trigger before you had time to blink. He never showed me that person, not once had I ever felt threatened by him.

I decided to accept him for who he was, to accept the family that had shown me unconditional kindness and love.

I wouldn't lie and say it didn't scare me when I knew Birch was going out to collect a debt or ruff someone up to make a point. It didn't matter if he had other guys with him; the fear was there, the painful twinge of anxiety would eat me alive until he came home.

But he always came home.

People came and went, and I turned a blind eye to the reality of what was going on. I never asked about what happened to someone if I didn't see them again. That part was none of my business, and completely out of my control anyway.

There were rules, a code that we lived by. And I respected it. I had to, there wasn't a choice for me.

I never completely felt like this was who I was. I had never fully accepted that this way of life was one I was agreeing to. But I did it. I did it because these people weren't just strangers anymore.